Long ago, the practice of
writing letters was a well developed activity. Before the telephone
and way before the internet, people had to actually sit down, take a pen or
quill to hand, and write their thoughts down. Many Literary figures
were also known as "Men of Letters" because of the quality of their
correspondence.

These were not letter
about the last vacation or inquiring about the kids or weather. These
were letters discussing the important events and philosophies of the day.
The framers of the U.S. Constitution, for example, wrote voluminously to
explain their rationales and concerns (so anyone who says we cannot know
what they were actually thinking has simply not done their research).

Now I make no pretense of
being or even aspiring to belonging in their company. Nevertheless, I
do have some excellent friends of high intellect and now and then I've been
drawn into correspondence (these days mostly via email) discussing things
that are important to me and sometimes of importance on a much grander
scale.

It occurred to me that
instead of trashing the emails when my mailbox fills up, there were some
that ought to be saved because they discuss things of interest and could,
perhaps, spark some discussion even on a broader scale. Sometimes I
have kept the name of my correspondent anonymous, at others I may identify
them if I have their permission.

I have arranged the
correspondence by topic in the cells bellow. Click on a cell to go to
that letter or letter/topic chain.